Chattanooga

Last week Allen called to inform me that he had booked us a hotel room in Chattanooga for a few nights. He followed that with, we have until 12:00 on Thursday to cancel. If you don’t know, I like schedules and itineraries, I like structure and plans. And well, deciding 72 hours prior to a vacation to actually go on a vacation, isn’t really structured in my world.

 But, Allen is adventurous and certain that he’ll bring me (and my Life Planner) to his spontaneous side eventually. While I’m not entirely convinced that I’ll ever change my ways that are rooted fairly deeply, I do believe he’s doing a fantastic job trying. I quickly said yes and spent the rest of the week planning and packing, of course.

He did a great job booking the room, we were literally across the street from the aquarium and in the heart of downtown Chattanooga. It was nice to park the car, and use the stroller as the preferred method of transportation for the weekend.

 We started Friday morning off with a trip across the street to the aquarium.

 Both kids loved the aquarium, Judson even stayed awake for the entire freshwater building. We wandered over to Blue Plate for lunch and Judson slept in his stroller beside the table the entire time. We basically hit the nap time jackpot with that one, and we high-fived each other when we finished eating and he was still snoozing.

After going back to the room to feed Judson, we headed over to the oceans building and worked our way through the exhibits.

Once we finished with the aquarium and did a little more exploring downtown, we headed back to the room. Did I mention that it was Allen’s birthday? We ordered a pizza and sang Happy Birthday in the hotel room. Allen is as laid back and low key as they come, so this birthday party was perfect for him, and perfect for us too! After dinner, we headed down to the pool to do a little swimming before bedtime. And please believe, as soon as the kiddo’s were sleeping, we streamed Scandal on my laptop.

And here’s the best family picture we could come up with from the whole trip.

We woke up on Saturday morning with plans to visit the Children’s Discovery Museum, but just as soon as we stepped outside in the beautiful weather, we immediately changed our minds. We walked across the bridge to Coolidge Park on the other side. Grabbed coffee from a food truck, found a carousel, and all was right in Braylen’s world.

We spent a little time people watching and Braylen found some other girls to play with (not surprising in the least, she makes friends wherever we go).

We made one last stop to do a little rock climbing before heading to eat at Urban Stack. We finished the night with Chunky Monkey at the Ben and Jerry’s around the corner from our hotel room.

Please believe, it wasn’t all fun and games. Judson doesn’t think he should sleep when we’re away from home. Saturday night was the worst, so Allen and I basically just hung out with him in shifts. I think we both ended up fairly well rested, all things considered.

We headed home yesterday morning and Judson slept the whole time while BK watched Finding Nemo and giggled out loud the whole time. We were home by lunchtime and off to a party and church yesterday evening. I haven’t unpacked a single thing.

I’m so thankful for this little vacation, I’m fairly certain it what was exactly what we needed right in the middle of winter and post-teething and ear infections. And plus, I didn’t have to make the beds, or do the dishes.